Making mental health a police priority

 By Julia Bartlett

Retired Connecticut Police Detective Robert Sterling started as a cop over 50 years ago, and training at the academy focused on learning criminal law, auto violations, and accident investigations.

“It was an 8-week training course at the Connecticut police academy. It was primarily classroom and firearms training. There was no defensibility driving or anything,” said Sterling.

The actions of police departments regarding mental health have led to a lack of trust between them and the general public despite progress that has been made.

Currently, cadets usually are in the academy for thirteen to nineteen weeks, but can sometimes be up to six months, according to Go Law Enforcement.

Potential candidates are also trained for a “few weeks at (the) home station, being educated on their particular procedures that were not addressed at the academy,” said Sterling. 

“In the station, (they) taught their particular procedures with respect to typical calls, bar fights, auto accidents, drunk driving, and major crimes would be passed off to detectives. I was a detective for three years,” said Sterling.

“With respect to mental health problems, the time period I was there, the mental health issue would be requested to take them to an institution or hospitalized. I would take them to CHH (Charlotte Hungerford Hospital) and try to get the hospital to admit them to the psychiatric facility,” according to Sterling.

Sterling believes that the role of de-escalation should not completely be on the hands of officers, as they handle so much within the line of duty already. 

 The trust between law enforcement and the public is dwindling in many communities, however, this is not a new occurrence, according to Montpieller.com.

There has been a push for more education and training for police on how to deal with high-pressure situations.

“While I was there, we were never taught to de-escalate them from having a breakdown, always taught to take them to the emergency room and try to get the doctor to commit them to an institution. Police officers are dispatching EMS services as well. I think that in my observation over the years, there is more involvement of the EMS services when there are situations with mental health,” said Sterling.

Being a police officer is a high-pressure job, and they must act in the moment; and are humans that make mistakes, but unfortunately, some of these mistakes are life-threatening.

 “People who are 20, or coming out of high school aren’t prepared to handle these kinds of stresses, ” said Brianna Votino, a Stonehill College student majoring in Psychology and minoring in Criminology.

It's important for individuals to understand why they are going into this line of work and how to cope with the pressures.

When Sterling was in the force, officers' mental health was not the top priority.

“You learn to deal with these situations. You laugh at things anyone else would be appalled by you laughing, but that is a defense mechanism; you're not laughing at the personal problems, you laugh to keep yourself from falling apart,” said Sterling.

 Sterling believes there should be an opportunity for individuals to see someone, especially when working on emotionally taxing cases.

“Police officers take the job to serve society, they have a bad rep that they are macho men, but that is all a defense mechanism, everyone knows these jobs are very taxing, but we build up defense mechanisms to help us cope,” said Sterling.

“There's some police officers that can't handle the daily pressures and stress, which is why every department should have mandatory counseling,” said Votino.

“You expect them to deal with shootouts and hardcore things that are happening when they are 18 but they havent learned how to deal with people in those situations,” said Votino.

According to the Treatment Advocacy Center, understanding how to deal with individuals with serious mental illness is a necessity nowadays, with almost 30% of all mass shootings caused by an individual with a serious mental illness.

“You can't treat a person with schizophrenia the same as a person who is perfectly healthy,” said Stonehill student Rachel Ellis, majoring in Psychology and planning to minor in Criminology.

“A lot of mental illnesses can’t distinguish between what is real and not and the behavior towards those individuals must change. I am going into this field because of the lack of care,” said Votino.

Policing isn’t the only aspect of the criminal justice system that has been struggling with individuals with mental illnesses; prisons have been locking individuals away even when they have serious mental illnesses.

In 1967 California passed a law stating that individuals with a  mental illness could not be thrown into a mental facility, because it “violated their constitutional right to due process,” according to the Cambridge Press.

Even though this law was passed, people who are mentally ill are still incarcerated. 

“I remember hearing about a story on Cape Cod, where this man murdered his own mother on his front lawn and went back into his home and turned it down.They ended up putting him in a center but he was released far too quickly and sent to (county lockup) awaiting trial. He ended up killing himself there after a few days,” said Ellis.

Stonehill College sophomore Owen Clifford is going into law enforcement because he wants to make the world a safer place.

“I want to be a federal agent because I want to serve my community and country, and I was inspired by my family members who serve,” said Clifford.

Clifford is very passionate about becoming a federal agent in the future and understands the difficulties of becoming one.

“Federal law enforcement positions require a college degree and higher up positions require a master's degree,” said Clifford.

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